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Poll shows Boulder County residents reluctant to leave their cars

By John Fryar

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
04/18/2014 06:23:16 PM MDT

Updated:
04/18/2014 06:42:35 PM MDT

Although there are many options available including biking and buses, a recent survey presented to Boulder County officials suggests people are reluctant to give up driving their cars. (Times-Call file photo)

It's not easy persuading Boulder County residents to get out of their own cars and to ride buses or bicycles or participate in car pools, a survey research company has advised county officials.

Talmey-Drake Research and Strategy Inc. said in a written report to the county that focus groups have shown that "support for alternative transportation efforts is driven not by what would get a person out of their own car, but by the hope those programs get others out of their cars so the roads are less congested for them as they continue to drive."

If You Go

What: Boulder County commissioners will review the county's sustainability programs, including those that promote alternative transportation modes, and will hold a public hearing about whether to place a sustainability tax on this fall's election ballots to fund the continuation and expansion of those programs.

In a recent poll for Boulder County, the company found that none of several suggested strategies for getting people to drive less scored high amongst most of the people surveyed.

Pollsters told the more than 600 people they surveyed between Feb. 28 and March 29 about several Boulder County programs intended to promote the uses of alternative forms of transportation.

People were asked to rate — on a scale ranging from zero to 10 — each of the programs for what it would do to to get them personally to drive less than they do now. Each person was told to assign a zero score to a program that "wouldn't do anything at all to get you personally to drive less than you do now," or a full 10 for one that "would definitely get you to drive less."

None of the programs presented in the poll earned much above a 5 on that zero-to-10 scale, Talmey-Drake reported.

Receiving the highest rating at 5.5 was a set of county-subsidized improvements designed to make it "safer for children and others to get around by walking and biking."

• Providing more convenient access to the city of Boulder's B-Cycle bike rental stations: 2.6.

• Making personal transportation advisers available to advise residents and businesses on how to shorten commutes and reduce car use: 2.3.

The alternative-transportation question was one of a variety of environmental sustainability issues covered in the Talmey-Drake poll for the Boulder County commissioners, who have scheduled a Tuesday afternoon meeting on the status of the county's sustainability programs and the funding needed to continue and possibly expand them.

That meeting also will feature a public hearing to allow people the chance to comment on what the county's doing in its current sustainability efforts and whether the commissioners should place a proposed sustainability tax on this fall's election ballot.

People were asked in the Talmey-Drake survey about a number of features that could be funded by a future sustainability tax, and whether each of them would make the people being polled more likely to vote in favor of a new sustainability tax.

Of those polled, 69 percent said they'd be more likely to vote for such a tax if it included funding for transportation infrastructure improvements such as bike paths, bus shelters and electric vehicle charging stations, as well as programs to increase bus ridership and car pooling.

Sixty-five percent said they'd be more likely to support a sustainability tax if it included funding transportation improvements to make it safer for children and others to get around by walking and biking.

Boulder County sustainability coordinator Susie Strife's memo to the commissioners for Tuesday's meeting highlighted accomplishments in a number of programs, including transportation.

Strife said a countywide transit education and pass support program has provided Regional Transportation Eco Passes to more than 6,000 participants, with ridership increasing between 30 to 40 percent on the RTD's routes to Lyons and Nederland after those communities' residents were given the county-subsidized passes.

Strife also said that since 2008, the Boulder County Transportation Department has helped complete a number of bicycle and road safety projects, including new or improved bikeways on highways and county road shoulders and intersection improvements.

By investing in such programs as those that support cycling, walking, car pooling and public transportation, "Boulder County strives to make it easier for people to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, while conserving natural resources and living an active, healthy lifestyle," the county said in a report detailing its sustainability programs.

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